Among the rich choice of news stories that could provoke breast-beating despair, none seems to have stirred the emotions quite so much as the mishap befalling a 65-year-old man in Dorset, prompting the extraordinarily long Mirror headline: "Q: What kind of society would allow a pensioner who fell down this manhole to watch in desperation as his cries for help are ignored by EVERYONE who walked past? A: ER, THIS ONE."
But does it really show a society in a state of moral breakdown? Falling down a manhole has been a comic staple since sewers were invented. And there has been a suggestion from Dorset police that many of the passers-by suspected that the elderly man shouting from a manhole was just one more TV stunt: understandable in an era when everyone from Dom Joly to Charlotte Church via Jamie Oliver are wandering around in fatsuits or other disguises, and pensioners and hoaxers are posting videos on YouTube.
Perhaps the only way to deal with a pensioner in a manhole is to quickly film the scene on one's own mobile phone, ready to send in to You've Been Framed, before offering practical assistance. What would you do?
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